Directed particle beams can be used in the research, industry, and medical applications to achieve various benefits. As an example, a directed particle beam can be used to ionize cancerous cells thereby changing the characteristics of the cancerous cells and often times hampering the ability of the cancerous cells to proliferate.
As a safety mechanism, an operator controlling the directed particle beam, must be able to terminate or redirect the particle beam away from a target, often times very quickly. One method to terminate the particle beam is to simply turn it off, however the amount of time needed to turn the beam off can be lengthy, and thus may not prove to be an effective method to remove the beam from impinging upon a target in an emergency situation.
Quickly redirecting the particle beam away from a target can be an effective way of immediately stopping the beam from impinging upon the body of the target. High power magnets can be employed to redirect the beam. The magnetic field generated by a high power magnet can cause the beam to change its direction through its interaction with the stream of accelerated particles that make up the particle beam. The magnetic field can be used to deflect the beam away from a target.
In many accelerator applications, requiring a fast-kicker magnet, radiation generated by particle beams, can limit the physical proximity of the modulator to the magnet. Conventionally, the modulator may be located hundreds of feet away from the radiation environment, increasing the complexity and cost of the modulator and cabling.
Powering up the magnet used to the deflect the beam quickly can be critical due to the fact that during the period of time when the magnetic field is building in the kicker magnet, the beam is only being partially deflected and may begin to impinge on unintended surfaces such as the hardware components associated with the particle beam or other surrounding areas. The particle beam should be deflected away from the target as quickly as possible and this can require that the kicker magnet be powered up quickly (i.e., the amount of time that the circuit has a large applied voltage resulting in a fast current rise should be minimized). Furthermore, given the radiation environment that a particle beam and its associated electronics operate in, the application time of a high voltage should be minimized so as to avoid radiation particles damaging the electronics.
Given the amount of current and voltage required to generate a magnetic field with enough of strength to deflect a particle beam, a traditional pulse generator may not be adequate due to the high voltage and currents needed to build the magnetic field. A specialized high power pulse generator, in which the components of the generator can handle the magnitude of current and voltage necessary to operate the kicker magnet, while also generating a pulse with a quick rise time can be necessary to effectively operate a kicker magnet.